1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:01,520 Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy, 2 00:00:01,550 --> 00:00:04,730 the podcast dedicated to your pickleball improvement. 3 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:06,610 We'll be having a great week. 4 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:12,840 This week in our regular episode, we are going to wrap up the series that we've 5 00:00:12,870 --> 00:00:16,980 been working on in terms of setting the right baseline for ourselves. 6 00:00:17,010 --> 00:00:20,120 The key here is basically it's grounding ourselves in reality. 7 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:21,340 We're going to talk about it some more today. 8 00:00:21,370 --> 00:00:25,860 But the idea is, let's find a way to evaluate our performance. 9 00:00:25,890 --> 00:00:31,360 This is the key, performance in a way that is productive and healthy and good for us. 10 00:00:31,390 --> 00:00:35,600 That's what we're going to talk about in today's podcast. 11 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:40,360 Every week, we've been encouraging you to rate and review our podcast. 12 00:00:40,390 --> 00:00:42,220 I'm going to do it again this week 13 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:46,060 because, again, it's important to us to try and reach as many players as we can. 14 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:50,080 If we can ask you if you haven't done it recently, if you have a minute, please go 15 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,260 in there and rate and review wherever you listen to it. 16 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,080 Also, if you haven't subscribed to the 17 00:00:54,110 --> 00:00:58,320 channel on YouTube and you happen to be a YouTube watcher or a viewer, please go on 18 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:00,360 to the channel, pickleball Therapy, and subscribe there as well. 19 00:01:00,390 --> 00:01:02,640 Help us get that number up. 20 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,600 The algorithm is all about numbers, and so we got to play that game so that we can 21 00:01:05,630 --> 00:01:10,290 get in front of other players just like you. 22 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:13,080 In a minute, I'll share a shoutout that we 23 00:01:13,110 --> 00:01:16,760 received, but We're going to start jumping into the podcast. 24 00:01:16,790 --> 00:01:19,620 I'll share the shoutout before the RIF. 25 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,520 Before we jump in, I do want to let you know, if you haven't yet signed up for it, 26 00:01:23,550 --> 00:01:26,380 we're in the middle of a live game study series. 27 00:01:26,410 --> 00:01:30,820 If you have never done a live game study, I cannot recommend it enough to you. 28 00:01:30,850 --> 00:01:34,540 You will be able to learn a lot more about pickleball. 29 00:01:34,570 --> 00:01:39,080 And in the RIF today, I'm going to talk about seeing the game, which is a concept 30 00:01:39,110 --> 00:01:44,200 that is maybe foreign to you, but when you're able to see the game, it just 31 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:46,480 really changes how you engage with the sport of pickleball. 32 00:01:46,510 --> 00:01:49,020 So we'll talk about that a little more in the Rift. 33 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:50,640 There's a link in the show notes where you 34 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,080 can go and sign up for the live game study if you care to do that. 35 00:01:53,110 --> 00:01:54,960 I cannot tell you how much fun it is. 36 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:58,460 That's why I keep on talking about it because I love doing live game studies. 37 00:01:58,490 --> 00:02:01,660 All right, let's dive into the main subject today. 38 00:02:01,690 --> 00:02:04,680 We are on episode 4 of a series. 39 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:05,920 It was going to be a three-part series, 40 00:02:05,950 --> 00:02:10,720 but as I mentioned in the third part of this series, a couple of conversations 41 00:02:10,750 --> 00:02:17,610 that I had during the US Open, one with both fellow senior pros, but one was a 42 00:02:17,640 --> 00:02:22,160 senior pro player who I had not partnered with, but we were just chatting at the end 43 00:02:22,190 --> 00:02:25,560 of his day, and the other senior pro was my partner. 44 00:02:25,590 --> 00:02:27,500 In talking about this idea of 45 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:31,120 baselines, there was a wrinkle that I I wanted to throw out there for you, a 46 00:02:31,150 --> 00:02:34,020 couple of traps that we need to try and avoid. 47 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:35,520 But generally speaking, what we've done on 48 00:02:35,540 --> 00:02:37,890 this journey is we have identified the struggle. 49 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:41,610 The struggle is dealing with our performance. 50 00:02:41,640 --> 00:02:46,440 We finish playing either a highly competitive match, like a 51 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:49,660 tournament or a league play or a series of games during a session, 52 00:02:49,690 --> 00:02:54,600 whatever it is, you've concluded a session of play and your mind is ruminated. 53 00:02:54,630 --> 00:02:59,980 Your mind keeps on playing, going over the thing again and again and again. 54 00:03:00,010 --> 00:03:03,280 And is there a more productive way to maybe frame that? 55 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:05,460 And we believe there is, which is this baseline approach. 56 00:03:05,490 --> 00:03:07,640 The second episode, which was the one a 57 00:03:07,640 --> 00:03:09,240 couple of weeks ago, we talked about the baseline. 58 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:11,160 And there I gave you specifics on how to 59 00:03:11,190 --> 00:03:15,480 determine the baseline for yourself to find the baseline that is right for you. 60 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,300 And that's key. It's the baseline that's right for you. 61 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:20,760 Then in the third episode, as I just mentioned, we talked about a couple of 62 00:03:20,790 --> 00:03:24,640 traps that can arise in trying to use a baseline. 63 00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:25,280 So avoiding those. 64 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:27,000 And also help you better understand this baseline idea. 65 00:03:27,030 --> 00:03:31,400 The more you think about it, the I think the more sense it will make to you, 66 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:33,600 because I tell you one thing, it's making a lot more sense to me. 67 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:34,480 The more I'm thinking about it, the more 68 00:03:34,510 --> 00:03:38,420 I'm processing it, the more I'm applying it, it's really helping me out. 69 00:03:38,450 --> 00:03:40,960 And then what we're going to do today is 70 00:03:40,990 --> 00:03:47,840 we're going to talk about the benefits of setting the baseline for yourself and 71 00:03:47,870 --> 00:03:50,980 using this baseline approach to evaluate performance. 72 00:03:51,010 --> 00:03:55,180 Before I get into the details of that, I did want to share with you guys a quick 73 00:03:55,210 --> 00:04:02,540 side story that I was reminded of that this thinking applies to. 74 00:04:02,570 --> 00:04:06,180 It has nothing to a pickleball, but you'll see how it ties together. 75 00:04:06,210 --> 00:04:10,040 I'm walking with Jill in an area near me 76 00:04:10,070 --> 00:04:14,080 called Dunedin that has some really narrow roads, diagonal. 77 00:04:14,110 --> 00:04:18,260 It's a cute little area, but the driving in the parking is weird there. 78 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:20,800 We're walking on this one diagonal road that has parallel parking. 79 00:04:20,830 --> 00:04:24,780 It's a one-way road, parallel parking on one side of it. 80 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,960 There's a car, literally, everybody is full. 81 00:04:27,980 --> 00:04:30,380 All the cars are parked parallel. 82 00:04:30,410 --> 00:04:34,500 One of the cars, not quite parallel, jacked in there a little bit. 83 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:36,560 The back of the car sticking out, probably 84 00:04:36,590 --> 00:04:40,360 three feet or something like that, making it hard for the cars to go buy it. 85 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:42,280 And there it is. Just there it is. 86 00:04:42,300 --> 00:04:44,060 That's the situation. 87 00:04:44,090 --> 00:04:45,560 And you look at that, right? 88 00:04:45,570 --> 00:04:47,620 So you look at this car that's parked not 89 00:04:47,650 --> 00:04:52,360 perfectly, not even well, if you think about it, and you say to yourself, Gee, 90 00:04:52,390 --> 00:04:55,560 whiz, that person not doing the right thing. 91 00:04:55,590 --> 00:05:00,560 And you can go down this path of thinking, of getting be angry, right? 92 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:01,240 If you were driving. 93 00:05:01,270 --> 00:05:03,960 We were walking, so we were not affected by it. 94 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:05,880 But if you were driving, you could go that way, right? 95 00:05:05,910 --> 00:05:10,440 And get angry, maybe get out of your car, maybe smack their car, key it, whatever. 96 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:11,760 I'm not saying you would do that, but that's possible, right? 97 00:05:11,780 --> 00:05:15,840 Where you go down this path of feeling bad about how this person behave 98 00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:19,380 because it certainly was not consistent with how everybody else is doing it. 99 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:21,700 But let me suggest you a different way of thinking about it. 100 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,140 And the way of thinking about it is like this. 101 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:29,060 Perhaps that driver in that moment simply did the best they could. 102 00:05:29,090 --> 00:05:34,540 And what I mean by that is that was all they were able to do in that moment. 103 00:05:34,570 --> 00:05:38,860 If I told you that was the case, and it could be for a number of reasons. 104 00:05:38,890 --> 00:05:40,680 It could be 105 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:46,840 just a really bad week for that person in their life If some really heavy stuff is 106 00:05:46,860 --> 00:05:50,600 happening to them, or maybe their brain doesn't process 107 00:05:50,630 --> 00:05:53,260 spatial information the way yours and mine does. 108 00:05:53,290 --> 00:06:00,300 If there's a world in which it's possible that that parker, that driver, did 109 00:06:00,330 --> 00:06:05,960 the best they could, maybe it's a better world if we give them 110 00:06:05,980 --> 00:06:11,100 the benefit of the doubt rather than going to, Well, you're just an a-hole. 111 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:12,360 You don't care about other people. 112 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:14,800 You're inconsiderate, whatever. That could be possible. 113 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:15,940 That's a It's a plausible answer. 114 00:06:15,970 --> 00:06:20,660 But without knowing, let's air on the side of the benefit of the doubt. 115 00:06:20,690 --> 00:06:23,780 This baseline approach is somewhat similar. 116 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:28,640 Obviously, you know yourself, so it's not quite as, I don't know the variables of 117 00:06:28,670 --> 00:06:33,460 the person in the parking situation, but you know yourself. 118 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:38,700 But set a baseline that is appropriate for you. 119 00:06:38,730 --> 00:06:41,400 Don't set a baseline based on, like we 120 00:06:41,420 --> 00:06:43,660 talked about the last week, based on others. 121 00:06:43,690 --> 00:06:47,320 Others park perfectly parallel park day, one shot, boom, they're in. 122 00:06:47,350 --> 00:06:50,800 Our good friend Tom, he's like the best parallel park I've ever seen. 123 00:06:50,830 --> 00:06:54,040 He can parallel park almost like closing his eyes. 124 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:55,580 He can parallel park and things perfect. 125 00:06:55,600 --> 00:06:57,500 I'm an okay parallel parker. 126 00:06:57,530 --> 00:07:01,680 But my point is, don't Don't compare yourself to others. 127 00:07:01,710 --> 00:07:05,060 Do it the best way that you can do it in terms of your baseline. 128 00:07:05,090 --> 00:07:09,180 The key of this whole process is to ground 129 00:07:09,210 --> 00:07:17,180 our performance, our evaluation of our performance in your reality. 130 00:07:17,210 --> 00:07:19,860 Key, in your reality. 131 00:07:19,890 --> 00:07:21,100 That's your baseline. 132 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:22,920 You can go back to the episode a couple of 133 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:24,960 ago and check that one out in terms of setting the baseline. 134 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:26,620 I'm not going to repeat everything here. 135 00:07:26,650 --> 00:07:29,800 That would defeat the purpose of having a four-part series. 136 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:37,380 Ground how you evaluate your performance in your reality, A, B, 137 00:07:37,410 --> 00:07:43,160 right now, not in some hypothetical future, not in some past. 138 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:45,420 The past is not hypothetical. Well, not in some past. 139 00:07:45,450 --> 00:07:46,820 In today. 140 00:07:46,850 --> 00:07:52,420 How are you doing today relative to how you can do today? 141 00:07:52,450 --> 00:07:54,660 That's the key to this process. 142 00:07:54,690 --> 00:08:00,560 You're not using some imaginary person that isn't you, some imaginary person that 143 00:08:00,590 --> 00:08:04,940 never misses a shot or whatever, makes all the perfect decisions when they play. 144 00:08:04,970 --> 00:08:08,420 You're also not imagining some hypothetical you in the future. 145 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:12,200 After you put in 50,000 hours of drilling and you're going to be this amazing 146 00:08:12,230 --> 00:08:18,540 professional player, great, that's not you today, if that's not your situation today. 147 00:08:18,570 --> 00:08:22,740 I know sometimes the pros listen, so if you're a pro, that's a different bar. 148 00:08:22,770 --> 00:08:26,540 But if you're not a pro, that's fine, too, wherever you're at in the game. 149 00:08:26,570 --> 00:08:30,220 Now, let's talk about the benefits of using this process. 150 00:08:30,250 --> 00:08:32,180 Number one, it's going to be accurate. 151 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:34,280 The first two are going to be... 152 00:08:34,310 --> 00:08:37,260 They're shades of the similar color. 153 00:08:37,290 --> 00:08:40,960 But one, it's accurate. 154 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:45,580 It's going to give you accurate information about how you perform today. 155 00:08:45,610 --> 00:08:49,600 It's not going to give you erroneous information or inaccurate information 156 00:08:49,630 --> 00:08:55,500 because you are, in fact, comparing yourself to your baseline today. 157 00:08:55,530 --> 00:08:59,540 It's also, this is the other shade, it's grounded in reality. 158 00:08:59,560 --> 00:09:02,200 This is We're not a fantasy world where we're living in, where we're comparing 159 00:09:02,230 --> 00:09:08,700 ourselves to some fantastical creature that isn't you. 160 00:09:08,730 --> 00:09:12,900 It's grounded in reality, and we want to live in a real world. 161 00:09:12,930 --> 00:09:15,300 I think, well, maybe we don't, but 162 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:17,500 we, generally speaking, we want to live in a real world. 163 00:09:17,530 --> 00:09:21,940 The third benefit is you're going to avoid needless frustration. 164 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:23,000 Frustration is that gap. 165 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:24,120 We've talked about this before between 166 00:09:24,150 --> 00:09:27,980 expectation and performance, expectation and what happens. 167 00:09:28,010 --> 00:09:34,360 If you're expecting yourself to never miss a shot, that's just impossible. 168 00:09:34,390 --> 00:09:38,860 You're setting yourself up for failure, just frustration and not happiness. 169 00:09:38,890 --> 00:09:43,100 You avoid need this frustration if you have a right baseline. 170 00:09:43,130 --> 00:09:46,980 Okay, today, I I slept only 4 hours last night. 171 00:09:47,010 --> 00:09:48,500 I had a lot on my mind. 172 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:51,460 Things are going on in my house that I have to deal with, whatever. 173 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:54,020 Yeah, I'm going to miss more shots today than I normally would. 174 00:09:54,050 --> 00:09:55,460 Because that's not... 175 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:58,560 Normally what is in my baseline today, my baseline today is today. 176 00:09:58,560 --> 00:10:01,160 My baseline today is today, right? My baseline is based on, I slept four 177 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:03,340 hours and I have a lot of stuff going on in my life. 178 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:04,840 That's how I come to the court. 179 00:10:04,870 --> 00:10:05,940 That's life. 180 00:10:05,970 --> 00:10:08,980 So it'll avoid that needless frustration. 181 00:10:09,010 --> 00:10:11,140 And you'll have a calmer mind. 182 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:12,580 Your mind will be much calmer 183 00:10:12,610 --> 00:10:16,960 because you'll know that You're doing the best you can. 184 00:10:16,990 --> 00:10:18,980 You're not comparing yourself to some 185 00:10:19,010 --> 00:10:23,140 arbitrary, not arbitrary, some fantastical thing. 186 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:24,680 Setting up all this noise in your mind, 187 00:10:24,700 --> 00:10:29,820 all this pollution in your brain, brain pollution. 188 00:10:29,850 --> 00:10:31,520 You'll have much calmer mind. 189 00:10:31,550 --> 00:10:34,620 You'll feel better and you'll play better, as we always say. 190 00:10:34,650 --> 00:10:37,340 Here's the thing about the baseline. 191 00:10:37,370 --> 00:10:39,180 It's not a victim thing. 192 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:44,140 It's not like, Oh, this is my baseline and nothing I can do about it. 193 00:10:44,170 --> 00:10:46,260 No, that's not the whole story. 194 00:10:46,290 --> 00:10:51,100 That's your baseline for today, meaning your performance needs to be 195 00:10:51,130 --> 00:10:59,020 judged against that baseline, but you can move your baseline over time. 196 00:10:59,050 --> 00:11:03,080 Let's Let's assume that you have... Let's just pick one shot. 197 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:05,060 You have difficulty with a back-end volley. 198 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:08,380 Back-end volley is you have trouble with it. 199 00:11:08,410 --> 00:11:09,860 That's your current baseline. 200 00:11:09,890 --> 00:11:13,980 So when you miss back-end volleys, what do you expect to happen? 201 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:15,340 That's your baseline. 202 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,680 You can move the baseline up or to the left or to the right, whatever you like. 203 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:20,020 Generally, people think in terms of up, 204 00:11:20,050 --> 00:11:23,980 but you can move your baseline by working on the back-end volley. 205 00:11:24,010 --> 00:11:26,280 Now, if you spend 500 hours working on 206 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:29,280 your back-end volley, and then you miss the same number as you 207 00:11:29,310 --> 00:11:32,000 missed before, now you can say, You know what? 208 00:11:32,030 --> 00:11:35,460 I did not perform up to my own baseline 209 00:11:35,490 --> 00:11:39,580 because it's the correct baseline based on the work that I've put in on that shot. 210 00:11:39,610 --> 00:11:40,660 That's okay. 211 00:11:40,690 --> 00:11:44,740 No one is saying that you're always going to perform up to your baseline. 212 00:11:44,770 --> 00:11:48,740 Meaning if your baseline is, 213 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:51,940 I don't know, call it three feet off the ground, that's your baseline. 214 00:11:51,970 --> 00:11:55,180 Today, given everything today, and you performed it 215 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:58,780 two and a half feet off the baseline, you didn't meet your baseline today. 216 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:00,120 What we don't want to do is set a baseline 217 00:12:00,150 --> 00:12:03,940 that's 10 feet above the court, that crazy high baseline. 218 00:12:03,970 --> 00:12:08,100 But reality is that our baseline is three feet above the court. 219 00:12:08,130 --> 00:12:12,360 We have a three-foot baseline, but we're comparing ourselves to a 10-foot baseline. 220 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:15,060 That's what we're trying to avoid through this process. 221 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:17,620 You can move your baseline. 222 00:12:17,650 --> 00:12:20,140 You can move it, but you have to do it over time. 223 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:21,920 You also have to understand that your 224 00:12:21,950 --> 00:12:27,020 baseline will be impacted by some factors outside of your control, including sleep, 225 00:12:27,050 --> 00:12:32,580 things going on in your life, other factors, physical injuries. 226 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:34,880 Those things will impact your baseline as well. 227 00:12:34,910 --> 00:12:37,660 Set that baseline so you get the benefits 228 00:12:37,690 --> 00:12:43,660 of not comparing yourself to that 10-foot baseline that doesn't make any sense for, 229 00:12:43,690 --> 00:12:46,780 if not all of you, for most of you to set right now. 230 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:48,440 Then if you want to work on moving that 231 00:12:48,470 --> 00:12:52,480 baseline from three foot to four foot to five foot. 232 00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:53,760 When I'm talking about feet, I'm talking 233 00:12:53,790 --> 00:12:57,820 about height of the baseline, obviously, so I'm just moving it up and down. 234 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:01,920 Set the baseline that's right for you now or Determine it, compare yourself to that 235 00:13:01,950 --> 00:13:07,120 baseline now, and you'll get the benefits of not living in an imaginary world and 236 00:13:07,150 --> 00:13:10,020 creating that needless frustration for you. 237 00:13:10,050 --> 00:13:12,020 Hopefully, this process is a process. 238 00:13:12,050 --> 00:13:15,340 I would recommend this is resonating with you. 239 00:13:15,370 --> 00:13:18,900 Go back to the episode 3 before this one. 240 00:13:18,930 --> 00:13:22,060 I believe that'll be episode 186, I believe. 241 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:28,420 I'll ask the folks who handle our podcast to renumber these so it's clear. 242 00:13:28,450 --> 00:13:31,600 This is episode 4 in this series, episode 243 00:13:31,630 --> 00:13:34,480 1 in this series, I'd go back and listen to it again so we 244 00:13:34,510 --> 00:13:38,060 can tee it up, then go through the process, work through it a few times. 245 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:40,080 If it resonates with you, if you want to 246 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:43,920 use this baseline approach to keep you better grounded in how you're evaluating 247 00:13:43,950 --> 00:13:47,540 your performance when you play, because I think it'll really help you 248 00:13:47,570 --> 00:13:53,720 navigate that better and avoid this needless rumination in your brain, compare 249 00:13:53,750 --> 00:13:58,440 yourself to some imaginary perfect shot maker, which just isn't the 250 00:13:58,470 --> 00:14:03,460 reality for all of us, I would say, even the pros. 251 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:05,000 All right, we're going to jump into the 252 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:06,680 rift, where I'm going to talk about seeing the game. 253 00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:08,080 Before I do that, I want to read a 254 00:14:08,110 --> 00:14:11,100 shoutout that we got, one of the reviews that we got. 255 00:14:11,130 --> 00:14:15,120 Before I do that, I believe, well, we're just coming out of 256 00:14:15,150 --> 00:14:17,740 it, I guess, the National Month of Pickleball. 257 00:14:17,770 --> 00:14:21,260 I always say every month is the month of Pickleball to me. 258 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:22,280 But here's the thing I'm going to 259 00:14:22,310 --> 00:14:28,420 challenge you to do is remember that pickle ball is beautiful. 260 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:30,340 Well, you know that already, so I'm telling you already know. 261 00:14:30,370 --> 00:14:33,260 But I'm going to tell you this, this you may not know. 262 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:36,040 Gift it. Gift pickleball to somebody. 263 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,120 Find a friend, talk to a friend, really take an effort. 264 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,740 Take a minute to yourself at the end of this podcast and reflect. 265 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:44,360 A friend of yours who could use pickleball or a friend of yours who would benefit 266 00:14:44,390 --> 00:14:47,220 from pickleball Please invite them to pick a ball. 267 00:14:47,250 --> 00:14:48,480 All right, let's read. 268 00:14:48,510 --> 00:14:53,420 This is another shout out that we got, a review we got from OmeMemam. 269 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:55,940 I like that name. I'm not sure what it means, but I like it. 270 00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:57,840 I find the discussion of the mental aspect 271 00:14:57,870 --> 00:15:00,340 of the game informative and useful in my play. 272 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:01,600 That's the pragmatic aspect, right? 273 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:04,060 It's good for our brain, but also good for our play. 274 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:07,480 From simple concepts of courtesy and playing fair to more complex issues of 275 00:15:07,510 --> 00:15:11,340 strategy and competition, it is all presented in a clear, concise discussion. 276 00:15:11,370 --> 00:15:14,460 Easy to listen to and great information. It makes me think. 277 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:16,000 Love it. Love making you think. 278 00:15:16,020 --> 00:15:17,620 Appreciate letting me know that. 279 00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:19,120 I even think about the episode about 280 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:20,360 turning toward my partner after a play ends. 281 00:15:20,390 --> 00:15:21,900 It makes a difference. 282 00:15:21,930 --> 00:15:24,380 Thank you very much for the review. 283 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:27,480 Again, if you consider reviewing us, that'd be awesome, and I would love to be 284 00:15:27,510 --> 00:15:31,460 able to read one of your reviews here on the podcast in the future. 285 00:15:31,490 --> 00:15:36,140 All right, let's talk about seeing the game. 286 00:15:36,170 --> 00:15:38,800 I want to talk about this because we're 287 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:41,240 going into this game study series, or actually, by the time you hear this 288 00:15:41,270 --> 00:15:45,180 podcast, we will be in the middle of the game study series. 289 00:15:45,210 --> 00:15:49,880 But the game studies are where I tee up a 290 00:15:49,910 --> 00:15:53,380 match on the screen with you, and I walk you through it. 291 00:15:53,410 --> 00:15:56,660 We're watching it together, and I'm showing you what I'm seeing. 292 00:15:56,690 --> 00:16:00,620 We look at mechanical errors, for instance, like misreturns of serve, 293 00:16:00,650 --> 00:16:04,420 paddle angle problems, energy problems with shots, things like that. 294 00:16:04,450 --> 00:16:08,920 We look at strategy decisions that are made, good. 295 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:10,980 We always like to say good could be better instead of bad. 296 00:16:11,010 --> 00:16:12,360 Good and could be better. 297 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:14,300 This would be a better solution than that. 298 00:16:14,330 --> 00:16:16,760 Sometimes we see things that are just phenomenal. 299 00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:18,820 You're like, That's the perfect shot in that situation. 300 00:16:18,850 --> 00:16:23,320 But oftentimes, we're looking for areas that we could improve on in terms of our 301 00:16:23,350 --> 00:16:26,800 position on the court, the shot selection, everything like that. 302 00:16:26,830 --> 00:16:30,880 It's a really interesting way of learning pickleball because you're 303 00:16:30,910 --> 00:16:35,220 watching it with someone like me who I know how to do this. 304 00:16:35,250 --> 00:16:39,620 If I'm not the best at doing this, I'm top 10 for sure in the country doing this. 305 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:43,480 Maybe top five, maybe top three, not the best, at doing game study, at doing like, 306 00:16:43,510 --> 00:16:46,820 breaking it down and figuring out, Okay, this is what's happening. 307 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:49,900 We go back, we rewind it, we show it to you again, and they're live. 308 00:16:49,930 --> 00:16:53,180 Here we get to answer your question. 309 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:54,340 So you have a question. 310 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:57,000 But at the end of this process, whether it's through our game study or your own 311 00:16:57,030 --> 00:17:02,620 study, I could tell you that seeing the is just phenomenal because 312 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:05,360 the beauty of it is it doesn't mean you're going to do everything perfectly. 313 00:17:05,390 --> 00:17:09,940 There is no such thing, but you see it. 314 00:17:09,970 --> 00:17:14,810 And by seeing it means you recognize the good that you do, you recognize the that 315 00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:18,980 you do, the not so good that you do, and you recognize the... 316 00:17:19,010 --> 00:17:24,880 Actually, I'm thinking about the audio editor we use may make that sound weird. 317 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:27,050 We'll see what it sounds like later, the little rasberry I did. 318 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:31,760 But you'll have your good shots and your bad shots, But you'll recognize him, and 319 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:34,010 you'll recognize, Oh, I did this, and I shouldn't have done that. 320 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:35,240 I'll give you a quick war story there. 321 00:17:35,270 --> 00:17:39,640 I was playing at the Nationals as my first time playing against... 322 00:17:39,670 --> 00:17:42,160 It was a mixed doubles, and the female 323 00:17:42,190 --> 00:17:45,080 player named Natalie Bagby, who was an amazing players. 324 00:17:45,110 --> 00:17:48,960 She and her partner Lily won gold at Nationals in the women's. 325 00:17:48,990 --> 00:17:52,000 I can't remember what happened in the mix for her in that 326 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,900 tournament, but I know in women's that she and Lily won gold. 327 00:17:54,930 --> 00:17:55,880 Amazing players. 328 00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:58,800 She played in the French Open and the Wimbledon and everything. 329 00:17:58,830 --> 00:18:02,660 She's a high an adult athlete, and she's left-handed, 330 00:18:02,690 --> 00:18:07,160 which is unusual in the world of senior pro women players at the high level. 331 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:08,080 It's her, Sherry Corder. 332 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:10,900 I may be missing somebody, but those are the two that come to mind. 333 00:18:10,930 --> 00:18:15,960 Anyway, so I would hit balls to spots that would normally be decent, and she would 334 00:18:15,990 --> 00:18:18,840 make me pay for them, but I can see the game. 335 00:18:18,870 --> 00:18:22,700 I'd look across at Lily and I'd be like, Oh, I mean, not Lily, Natalie. 336 00:18:22,730 --> 00:18:27,180 I'd look across at Natalie, Natalie, I hit it to the wrong spot, didn't I? 337 00:18:27,210 --> 00:18:33,360 Immediately, because I can see the game almost like I'm out of the court as 338 00:18:33,360 --> 00:18:35,400 I'm watching what's going on during the rally. 339 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:36,240 The other thing is when you're watching 340 00:18:36,270 --> 00:18:39,740 your friends play, you can sit there and figure out what's going on. 341 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:43,640 It also helps you identify threats and opportunities when you're playing because 342 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:45,660 you're seeing what's going on on the other side of the net. 343 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:47,920 It's an amazing way to interact with the sport. 344 00:18:47,950 --> 00:18:50,920 So think about it when you're out there at 345 00:18:50,950 --> 00:18:54,900 your rec plays and open plays or you have a rest and things like that. 346 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:56,400 Spend a little bit of time, talk to your 347 00:18:56,430 --> 00:19:00,290 friends, do your thing, but then spend a few minutes just watching. 348 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:03,920 See if you can suss out errors that are common, because what you 349 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:05,800 will find is you'll find a lot of patterns in play. 350 00:19:05,830 --> 00:19:07,860 A lot of pick-able is patterns. 351 00:19:07,890 --> 00:19:10,040 Your friends and your partners, you and 352 00:19:10,070 --> 00:19:13,680 your opponents all have patterns, shots that you like, shots 353 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:17,180 you don't like, tendencies of hitting this ball there and this ball, whatever. 354 00:19:17,210 --> 00:19:20,900 So you get better at anticipating because you're seeing the game. 355 00:19:20,930 --> 00:19:23,770 Anyway, so that's the RIF. 356 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:25,220 Now, here's the thing. 357 00:19:25,250 --> 00:19:28,010 This baseline thing, it's going to help your game. 358 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:30,090 This is what we're talking about, last four episodes. 359 00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:31,250 Check them out again. 360 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:32,530 Work on your baseline. 361 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:33,900 Because what I want for you is this. 362 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:34,960 I want you to play better. 363 00:19:34,990 --> 00:19:36,420 I want you to feel better. 364 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:38,290 But next time that you're walking around 365 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:42,460 and you see a car that's parked a little weird, I want you to ask yourself, 366 00:19:42,490 --> 00:19:46,380 maybe they just did the best they could that day. 367 00:19:46,410 --> 00:19:50,220 That's all we can ask for, of ourselves and of others. 368 00:19:50,250 --> 00:19:52,440 That's this week's podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. 369 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:54,560 As always, the rate and review already says three times. 370 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,380 I'm not going to say it again, but I haven't said this. 371 00:19:56,410 --> 00:19:58,330 Share this with your friends, right? 372 00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:01,250 If you enjoy the podcast, they probably will, too. 373 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:02,620 I hope you have a great week, 374 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,640 and I look forward to seeing you in our next, Pickleball Therapy podcast.